does everyone here follows the recommneded oil change service interval on our manual?

thanks!

Welcome to the club!

H E double hockey sticks NO!!! :D
most people change between 3500 and 7500. try the search function type in oil change, first oil change, ect. there are at least 10 different threads on oil.
try a search for oil fliters, find out the best oil filters
Happy searching.:)

Yes. With proper, high quality oil.

every 4k miles with full syn mobile 1 for my E:D

every 10k with mobil1.

Yes, every 5k; I follow the manufactorer's recommended to the tee... I got an extended warranty untill 77K (I have 24K as of now), so I plan to keep my current E for a long time!!!! Best vehicle I've ever ownded... Also, just an FYI, I owned a Jeep Cheorkee prior to purchasing my E, and the E handles much better in all road conditions than the Jeep did... it also uses about half as much gas!

5K is not the recommended interval.

I change my oil every 10k, but change the filter every 5k. My dad works for Napa and says while high grade syn oil will last 10k, there is no filter out there that should be used for 10k miles. I change my filter every 5k. I use Royal Purple oil available at Napa. It's a tad pricey, but still cheaper than the $80 oil change I had at Chevron due to the $8/qt Amsoil they had to use.

5K is not the recommended interval.

It is for severe conditions... and since the summers in Maryland are 95-100 degrees, plus 100 percent humidity, and that I live in the suburbs and do a lot of stop and go driving (very short commute to my office), I follow this schedule..

For normal driving conditions, 10K every oil change or every 1 year is recommended.

It is for severe conditions... and since the summers in Maryland are 95-100 degrees, plus 100 percent humidity, and that I live in the suburbs and do a lot of stop and go driving (very short commute to my office), I follow this schedule..

For normal driving conditions, 10K every oil change or every 1 year is recommended.

I can't remember the last time I drove only 10k miles in a year. :) My E goes on all our family vacations as we don't fly.

It is for severe conditions... and since the summers in Maryland are 95-100 degrees, plus 100 percent humidity, and that I live in the suburbs and do a lot of stop and go driving (very short commute to my office), I follow this schedule..

For normal driving conditions, 10K every oil change or every 1 year is recommended.

That's not "severe". That's normal.

5K is the absolute Maximum I will go. Especially with the Light Oil Honda recommends.

That is such a waste of time, energy, and resources to change out an oil at 3500 miles. The SM rated oil in you Honda is so much better than that and capcable of at least twice to three times that interval. "Light oil" is a myth. It is the intended property of the oil and its ability to stay within specification that matters. Why don't you complete a Used Oil Analysis on your drained or sampled oil and see for yourself? Your engine is designed to that oil, and you should not fear it.

Changing the filter 2x the oil gave me a bit of a chuckle. I just got ahold of the honda servcie manual for my 00 Civic and it actually reccomends changing the filter ervery other oil change under normal conditions.

If the original post is asking how often you should change the oil on an Element driven 10k/year. I would recommend changing the oil every 6 months no matter the mileage.

Changing the filter 2x the oil gave me a bit of a chuckle. I just got ahold of the honda servcie manual for my 00 Civic and it actually reccomends changing the filter ervery other oil change under normal conditions.

Oh god. That can't possibly be smart.

I have always changed oil every 3k.
I don't use synthetic oil. I don't care if it's synthetic or not, it gets dirty and the dirt stays in your engine.

I use Castrol Oil and Fram Filters. I may start getting Honda filters because Fram is getting expensive. Besides, those reciepts fromt the parts store turn black in a hot car and I like to keep the reciepts in a foldr in the glove box. Honda gives a computer printout.

I only have 12k on my E, but I did my first oil change at 10k.

I used Mobile1 and the ordered the Honda filter from H&A, my oil was still very clean at 10k, and I don't see a reason to change it before 20K. I am running at about 12K per year, as I got my E last August 31st....

If you are using NAPA filters, no wonder...

Regards,

I'm puzzled about changing the filter without changing the oil. Mind you, I have changed the oil and filter on a car in a long time, but I though you were supposed to drain the oil, then change filter, and finally refill. If you don't drain the oil first, doesn't quite a bit of it spill out when the filter is removed?

I suppose one could reuse the drained oil.

paulj

Since I am frugal (lazy?) I would change only the filter on my old Samurai. That thing used about one qt. of oil every 3k-4k miles. So when it got low I would swap out the filter and top off the crankcase instead of doing a full oil change. I found no more spillage from that method than when I used to do a full oil change. Things might be different on the Element.

Changed my oil this weekend without any problems at all. Quite proud of myself actually. Got a Napa Gold Filter and a couple quarts of Royal Purple. Things are running nice.

...couple quarts of Royal Purple. Things are running nice.

You better check your dip stick or things won't be running nice for very long.

You better check your dip stick or things won't be running nice for very long.

By couple I mean 4.5-5 not 2. I may be new to working on cars, but I'm not a moron. :)

:rolleyes: I kinda sorta said, "OH MY!" myself over the words "couple"....

I tend to forget that most people interpret "couple" as 2. I tend to use terms like couple as a vague reference.

You people are crazy!!!! I have owned many great cars. The element being my favorite! I have always religously changed my oil at no greater than a 3000 mile interval, sometimes 2500. I used to manage a large repair shop. everything I have ever read shows that modern conventional oils do not begin to break down, lubrication wise until well after 3000 miles. So if you are changing your oil ofetn, synthetic is simply a total waste of money. However, no matter who you are or where you drive, your oil is collectin dirt and microscopic metal particles every time you drive it. Changing your oil and most importantly your oil filter often is imperative. Waiting 10 or 12000 miles is just plain stupid, regardless of what the manual says. It is just too cheap and easy to make sense to wait longer than 3000 miles. It would be ok to go 5000 miles on an oil change if you are stricly only doing highway miles, as this will burn out many of the dirty imputiries and keep you oil cleaner. My honda dealer in Missoula, MT gave me 10 free lube oil filter services with my purchase, hard to beat that! Even if they hadn't though, I would never put the miles on my E that many of you are, that is just plain nuts! Also, every mechanic I knew says FRAM filters are garbage. buy Honda!

You people are crazy!!!! I have owned many great cars. The element being my favorite! I have always religously changed my oil at no greater than a 3000 mile interval, sometimes 2500. I used to manage a large repair shop. everything I have ever read shows that modern conventional oils do not begin to break down, lubrication wise until well after 3000 miles. So if you are changing your oil ofetn, synthetic is simply a total waste of money. However, no matter who you are or where you drive, your oil is collectin dirt and microscopic metal particles every time you drive it. Changing your oil and most importantly your oil filter often is imperative. Waiting 10 or 12000 miles is just plain stupid, regardless of what the manual says. It is just too cheap and easy to make sense to wait longer than 3000 miles. It would be ok to go 5000 miles on an oil change if you are stricly only doing highway miles, as this will burn out many of the dirty imputiries and keep you oil cleaner. My honda dealer in Missoula, MT gave me 10 free lube oil filter services with my purchase, hard to beat that! Even if they hadn't though, I would never put the miles on my E that many of you are, that is just plain nuts! Also, every mechanic I knew says FRAM filters are garbage. buy Honda!

Thankyouverymuch for calling me stupid... Of which i assure you that I am very much not! (An advanced engineering degree is not easy to get if you were "stupid")

I'm happy your Honda dealer gave you free oil changes. Mine did not, nor would I use them unless they were supplying an oil that I prefer. ..but that's just plain old cheap, stupid, crazy me! :rolleyes:

The life of the oil is a function of the stability and longevity of the viscosity improvers, base oil, and wear additives. Today's oils are very capable of a 10,000 mile OCI, and maybe much more. My long history of Used Oil Analysis PROVES this beyond any reasonable doubt. It makes SENSE to investigate what the capabilities are, then act upon those.

It is an absolute WASTE to buy an oil that can easily complete the interval, and change it out early, before its designed capabilities are done. I would even question the SANITY of those who throw money out the window, but if it makes you FEEL GOOD to purchase oil filters, and spend uneeded time changing out perfectly good oil, along with those filters, by all means... keep doing so...

ME? I'll continue to use the best oils I can find, along with the best filters. I will continue to put several hundred thousand miles on all my vehicles, and back up the fact that there is little wear by checking the used oil in a lab, and scientifically determining when my oil needs to be changed. NOTHING STUPID about that!

Back in the "good old days" (1980) Toyota recommended 8,000 mile intervals for oil changes. My Celica had no problems after 175,000 miles and I gave the vehicle to another person in 1996 who clocked an additional 75,000 miles with the 2.2L 4 Cylinder engine. They then sold the car to another person.

My son had a 1989 Camry 4-cylinder and clocked 275,000 miles on that engine. The car did not get 3,000 mile oil changes.

It is likely the oil/lubricant companies changed the intervals gaining significant revenues from more frequent oil/filter changes.

Regards,

Well, Mark C I clearly owe you an appology. I meant no offense. You are obviously a man of science, as am I. I suppose the idea of 10,000 miles on an oil change will always just seem too foreign to me. I grew up in the era of every 3000 mi. like most of us. You seem to have this down to a very exact science, and again I appologize for any insult. I will continue with my 3000 mile interval and forego the oil analysis. I guess times are changing. Just out of curiousity, where do you weigh in on the timing chain debate? Any maintenence needs there? Or will it be trouble free for the life of the engine like the old days of timing chains?

My Two Cents(tm):

Around 10k. I live in what Honda would call severe conditions, except they don't know how my car is used. My 25 mile commute includes 20 miles on the interstate. People here will tell you that's stop and go traffic... but not at 5:30 or 6:00am it's not, and neither is it when I return home (3:30 or so).

At nearly 30k ( I just did the third oil change), everything looks and runs great, the brakes are barely worn, the stock tires look great (which is sad because I'd like justification for new ones).

Much less than 10k is, IMO, a waste. I could be anal about it and make the engine last to 500k miles. But that's just ridiculous - if I'm honest with myself, I'll be replacing my car at about 170k to 200k. I've never had a car NOT make it to that point, especially not a Honda (or Toyota, my other cars). I had a Ford I junked before 100k, but we won't go there.

My experience is, especially with Honda and Toyota, 10k is fine even under severe conditions... I've never known a Honda or Toyota to die from engine failure before 200k, even poory maintained - the death is always something else; electrcial, mechanical, accidental, the seats are worn through or the body is all dinged and maybe getting some rusty spots, the paint is damaged, and the owner just says "well, it's been a great 10 (or 11 or 12) years, time I got a new ride."

How many of you guys trade in your vehicles every 4 or 5 (or less) years and are killing yourselves doing all this extra maintainance? When I've traded my cars in, I've offered maintainence records, the dealers have all been like "no, our mechanics check it out to see the condition."

I myself am on the 8 year cycle (or try to be). My Civic (bought used) was 9 years and 170K miles when I traded if for the Element - because I didn't want to repair the A/C. I lived without A/C for about 3 years. I sold the last Toyota I owned (an 81 Tercel) in 1995 when I moved from Vegas to Atlanta. 10k was the MINIMUM distance before an oil change on that car, because I was a student, didn't have a lot of money, and didn't have a place to do the work myself. That car ended up having all sorts of problems - brakes, the A/C on that one burned out, too. I got it fixed that time only to have it (the A/C) die about a year later again. Never an engine problem.

Then when this debate comes up, I hear about people in other countries who are actually told by the manufacturers they don't need to change it that often - that's why the mileage has gone up lately - gullible Americans, as we become a much more closely knit world, thanks to the internet, say "Hey, how come you tell me I've got to change my oil every 3000 miles, but in the dessert in Africa, they drive theirs 10,000km (roughly 6600 miles) before needing one?"

So I'm not telling anyone NOT to change their oil whenever they want - 3k, 5k, 10k, certainly change it (and I change the filter each time too... why not? You're already doing the work anyway!), but I guarantee I'll put MY oil maintainance schedule up against any one doing a 5k synthetic schedule, and I'll have saved a ton of cash and, more importantly, time, and my car will be running just fine when I trade it in at 170k to 200k miles, unless there's some other problem (like a leak). I guarantee it. It worked on my 81 Tercel, and I trust the Hondas I've bought since a lot more. The 93 Civic was a prime example.

I may even trade in the E early, when you can start bargaining for Fits, because we have another E and the Fit makes great sense for a commuting car... things like that happen all the time. If that were the case, I might not even make it to 60k miles, at which point I would have done 6 oil changes instead of the 20 required if I changed it every 3k.

Edit - this is also part of my argument against domestics... I argue with people who think domestics have caught up in quality to the good Japanese companies. They say a properly maintained (they mean anally maintained) domestic will last just as long... yeah, just as long as a crappily maintained Japanese car! And I do average maintainance, then I'm good to go for "the life of the car", which all depends on your cylce of purchasing.

Well, Mark C I clearly owe you an appology. I meant no offense. You are obviously a man of science, as am I. I suppose the idea of 10,000 miles on an oil change will always just seem too foreign to me. I grew up in the era of every 3000 mi. like most of us. You seem to have this down to a very exact science, and again I appologize for any insult. I will continue with my 3000 mile interval and forego the oil analysis. I guess times are changing. Just out of curiousity, where do you weigh in on the timing chain debate? Any maintenence needs there? Or will it be trouble free for the life of the engine like the old days of timing chains?

Thanks.

I have had both timing belts and chains in my vehicles. Don't EVEN get me started about my brief fling with a FIAT 124 Spyder! :razz: The chain vehicles never wore out the engine before the chain... with one exception: My Lincoln. It had ONE timing code come up at 165000 miles, but it was the tensioner system that caused it, not the chain itself per se. I beleive a non-stressed chain will last the life of the engine.

Seriously, a little laboratory testing of the oils you drain will convince you that 3000 mile intervals are a waste of your money. The lab will tell you anything wrrong, and how much of the oil life is left. Really, they are quite exacting. It is not guesswork.

I plan on keeping every car at least ten years. The last five I got rid of were over 160,0000 miles. (With the exception of the SATURN I had... I hated that vehicle!) One of those overheated and caused enough engine damage to make the GMC Turbo diesel Suburban not worth fixing. We would still have it at 225K if it had not failed.

I changed my oil and filter this past saturday... mobil 1 5w-30 full syn, with honda AO1 filter... at 4281 miles... :)

Just couldnt make it to 5K... :x

I haven't seen any mention of acid buildup in the oil. That used to be one reason for changing the oil either every 3 months or every 3,000 miles.
I agree with everyone else on here. I don't think engines fail anymore due to oil problems, except lack of it. I change my Lexus oil at 5K intervals even though I only put 7K to 8K on it per year. I'm not worried about it.

For collector car people: In Car and Driver Magazine about 10 years ago, Patrick Bedard asked an oil engineer what would be the best oil for cars that aren't driven many miles. The engineer told him if the car doesn't have smog controls that diesel oil has the best additives. You can't use that oil in a car with catalytic convertors so that rules out anything made in the last 25 years.

This is the only oil related breakdown story I know of: In the early 80s one of our workmen, with three other people, went off on vactaion. He was pulling a boat thru the rockies, had his truck loaded down with people and all of their fishing gear and luggage for two weeks. The engine blew on his Ford V8 pickup with only 42K miles on it. He had the truck brought back to KC to make Ford replace the motor. They found it still had the OEM filter on it! He had never changed the oil or filter, just topped it up occasionally. Ford declined to fix the truck, and rightfully so!

The idea of frequent oil changes comes from two sources: Days gone bye before oil quality was what it is these days, and the Jiffy Lube industry that would tell you that 1000 mile intervals are a good idea - if they thought they could get away with it.

Neither of these reasons pertains today. Oils are much better these days and I'm not fooled by a company that owes it's very existance to conning folks into paying for unnecessary oil changes.

BTW my last two long term vehicles both exceeded 200k miles and neither died due to engine wear.

The following is straight from the Honda Owners Link web site:

Why should I wait to change the oil the first time?

Your Honda engine was delivered with an oil that is specially formulated for new engines that have not yet developed their "natural" wear patterns and may contain minute particles from the manufacturing process.

American Honda strongly recommends this special oil be left in the engine long enough for these wear patterns to develop, usually until the first maintenance interval specified in your Owner's Manual, based on your specific driving conditions.

I repeat: My lab testing of the original Honda oil fill revealed nothing but a good, high-moly oil. Any other comparable oil will achieve the same results.

Early replacement of the oil will remove silicon (from seals and casting detritous) as well as wear metals. This is a good thing.

I bought a new Toyota truck in 1985. I ran Mobil 1 since the first oil change and drove it 550,000 miles before the head gasket finally let go. I changed the oil and filter every 10k miles. I tore the engine down to rebuild it and the bearings and most other parts were still in spec. There was zero sludge in the oil pan and cylinder head and the rest of the engine looked like new. I have since ran Mobil 1 in every vehicle I own and have never considered running anything else. Just my .02. Those who change their oil every 3k miles sure like wasting money IMO.

3,000 mile oil change on a vehicle with a 10,000 mile OEM spec? Especially after viewing some of the oil analysis threads, it seems really silly to me. I mean, I used to work at a beer/wine distributor that used Chevy heavy duty cargo vans. They were loaded beyond capacity on a daily basis, then driven stop and go several hundred miles per day. Since the oil got changed when time was available, those vans usually went 10,000-15,000 miles between oil changes (with a 3,000 mile factory spec), and I assure you that we did not use synthetic oil in any of them. The three-year-old van had 177,000 miles on it when I left, and it ran like a top. The six-year-old van had 260,000 miles and ran great. No one had any idea how many miles were on the nine-year-old van, since the odometer had stopped years prior.

With a 10,000 mile spec, I'll change the oil when I get to it, but not a mile before 5,000... Just remember kids, that used oil that you're changing early still has to go somewhere!

That used oil you change early goes to the same place that any oil goes when turned for "recycling"... An Oil-fired power plant.

Good info on this eternal debate... :D

Anyhow, I have seen a lot of references to "high quality" oil on this thread. Does any standard Quaker State, etc oil that you'd pick up at an average auto store qualify?

I assume if you meant synthetic that would have been mentioned specifically.

"Good Quality" officially means any oil that meets the API-SM specification. I consider it to mean Mobil 1.

Well, Mark C I clearly owe you an appology. I meant no offense

It's easy to say something in haste but takes a stand-up person to admit to it and apologize.

Cheers to you Montanacana !